Musings on Music

This small book declares that life without music is inconceivable to the vast majority of humankind. It is about the author's learnings, and leanings to and from, his life as a composer, instrumentalist and improviser, with some account of other proclivities, attitudes and artistic work. A short biography provides context to a life spent creatively, eventually in mid-life focussed on musical composition. The authors somewhat idiosyncratic attitude to the composing act, is contrasted with other attitudes discernible in our currently collapsing world. Composing as a creative act is analyzed contextually, but not overly technically, as to overall proportionalities affecting the listeners experience, and balances within the work which the composer must consider, such as between dissonance and consonance. And then there is improvisation, instant composition! And the authors love of trees, which seem to approve of his playing with them. Group improvisation is discussed parallel to an endeavor to create leaderless functional working groups. A couple of prominent modern composers are discussed relevant to the author's musical attitudes: Pierre Boulez (no) and Jonathan Harvey (yes). These are followed by a short note on spirit in music, which leads to the last and largest chapter, a paean on the power of sound in music making, mythmaking, and synesthesia. Appendices include a report on the author's 70th birthday concert; a correspondence with two other composers on life and art music; encomiums and reviews; score samples; and references to recordings which are held on a website opened for the purpose.